of choosing the wrong vocabulary. Furthermore, speaking skill for junior high school level does not have much concern on the grammar and vocabulary.
First aspect in this research is fluency. According to Fillmore 1979 : 93 fluency is the ability to be creative and imaginative in language use. It becomes
important thing in speaking. Fluency often becomes the object of evaluation in major foreign language assessment.
The second aspect is pronunciation. Pronunciation becomes so important in oral communication, because wrong or bad pronunciation will lead different meaning
and appears some missunderstanding. Hughes 2003 stated that foreign accent requires concentrated listening, and mispronunciations lead to occasional
misunderstanding and apparent errors in grammar or vocabulary. In addition Gilakjani 2012 states “ Pronunciation refers to the production of sounds that we use
to make meaning. It includes attention to the particular sounds of a language segments, aspects of speech beyond the level of the individual sound such as:
intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm suprasegmental aspects, how the voice is projected voice quality, and in its broadest definition, attention to gestures and
expressions that are closely related to the way we speak a language. The third aspect is content. It is very important, because oral communication
without essential content becomes useless. In practice the students need to express ideas, feeling, and thoughts in oral communication. It can be interpreted as a content.
Levinson 1996:71 states that ideas, feeling, and thoughts refer to the kinds of mental process that occur during the act of formulating a speech. Therefore, it is
necessary for the students to express appropriate content that is relevant to the topic.
2.2 Speaking in ELT
Speaking fluently in English is often considered as one of the factors that establish someone’s ability. It becomes the main purpose for many students in
learning English at school, and it becomes important part of learning foreign language. Unfortunately, the EFL students skill in speaking is still far from what is
should be. It becomes a job for the teacher to teach speaking English well to the students. Therefore, the English teacher should give extra effort in teaching the EFL
students to improve the students’ participation and achievement. In fact, either learning or teaching English are not easy. It becomes more
difficult to teach speaking at secondary school. As students grow up, it is difficult for them to concentrate on the subject and they get distracted easily with another
problem. So, it becomes a challenge to teach English in secondary school. In order to make the students develop their ability in spoken English, the teachers have to be
creative in creating a comfort environment to keep students motivated and interested in learning process.
2.3 Drama Technique in ELT
In speaking activity, the students are expected to have communicative competence: the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately to accomplish
communication goals. The desire outcome of teaching speaking in the language learning process is the ability co communicate competently, not the ability to use the
language exactly as a native speaker does. The EFL learners tend to measure their ability in English through how well they speak English accurately and fluently.
Dealing with this statement, Hughes 2003:113 confirms that the objective of spoken language is to develop the student
s’ ability to interact successfully in English and to involve comprehension as well as production.
Teaching English may not fulfill its goal. Even after years in learning English, the students do not gain the confidence to produce an English language in or outside
the classroom. An attractive alternative is teaching language through drama because it gives a context for listening and speaking, a meaningful language production, forcing
the learners to use their language resources and enhancing their linguistic abilities. In teaching speaking, we can use drama. We can play a role while teaching speaking.
We asked the students to play a character and they have to speak up coincide with the
character that they played. This way will gain the confidence of the students to speak in front of public. It can improve their ability in speaking.
Drama is applied to classroom activities where the focus is on the doing rather than on the presentation, and it is different from the theatre. Theatre concern more
with presentation. The students have the oppurtunity to experiment with the language they have learnt, and the teacher has a chance to see how each person operates in a
relatively unguided piece of interaction. According to Doughill 1987 there are five actvities of drama in the classroom, they are :
1. Warm-up exercises
Doughill 1987:9 states the aim of this activity is to foster a climate of trust, awareness and group cohesion in which creative collaboration can take place.
Sometimes it is also called “ensemble building exercises”. This activity helps the students to focus their minds so they are ready to start the lesson. Warm-up exercises
can be used at the beginning of the lesson. Here the three different types of warm-up exercises Doughill:1987:10 :
a. Introductory warm-up exercises.
The purpose is to break down barriers and to bond participations, so that the student shares the same fun experience.
b. Verbal and vocal warm-up exercises
This activity is particularly useful for steering students’ minds away from their native language towards the target language. This activity is used to
practice the students’ pronunciation. c.
Trust and sensitivity exercises. This activity helps to foster such group togetherness. The students can
build a good relationship each other through this activity.
2. Mime
Mime helps the students to build up their confidence by encouraging them doing things in front of the class. Mime develops the students’ power of imagination. It help
the students comfortable with their idea so they can show up their confidence in front
of the class. According to Doughill 1987:13 Mime is a non-verbal representation of an idea or story through gesture, bodily movement and expression. Doughill
1987:15 added although no language is used during mime, it can be spur to l
anguage use where there is the need for explanation, both in terms of the teacher’s instructions and students’ discussion if the mime involves pair or group work.
3. Role Play
This is probably the term most language teachers are familiar with. It describes a type of activity in which the students are given fairly controlled scenarios
or cuecards to interpret. It fits if the definitions of drama, but it has connotations of a more controlled situation in which the students generally interact in pairs or small
groups. Doughill 1987:17 states, the main benefit of role play from the point of view
of language teaching is enable a flow of language to be produced that might be otherwise difficult of impossible to create. Livingstone in Doughill 1987:17 says:
by simulating reality role plays allow students to prepare and practise for possible future situations.
4. Improvisation
Improvisation is an excellent technique to use in the classroom as it motivates the learners to be active participants in real situations. At the beginning students are
hesitant and shy to participate in the activities, but after a few sessions they become more enthusiastic and there are phenomenal improvement in their confidence level.
The implementation of this technique is to improve the students confidence. Improvisation provides learners with opportunities to not only improve their language
communication skills, but also to improve their confidence which ultimately lead them to develop their ability in speaking English.
It is important to keep in mind that much of the content for the improvisation activities could come from the participants own background and experiences. In fact,
improvising is something we all do in our daily lives. Hodgson and Richards in Doughill 1987:19 define the term as a spontaneous response to the unfolding of an
unexpercted situation. This ability to improvise is a necessary ingredient of language use.
5. Simulation
In simulation activities, the students are either playing themselves or someone else. Simulation activities are also interaction activities with various categories of
dialogues. One category would be social formulas and dialogues such as greeting, parting, introductions, compliments, and complaints. Simulation exercises can teach
students how to function in a social situation with the appropriate social niceties: for example, students could practice how to turn down a request for a date or a party.
Another category of simulated interaction activity is community oriented tasks, where students learn how to cope with shopping, buying a ticket at a bus stop etc. This sort
of simulation helps students communicative participation in the community and at the very least help them in the task of collecting important information.
Livingstone in Doughill 1987:21 sees a distinction between the assumption of role in role-play and simulation where the studen brings his own personality,
experience amd opinions to the task. There may be improvisation within role-play and role-play within simulation, but for the language teacher there is only one
concern : the opportunities they create for pdoduction of the spoken language.
2.3.1 The Application of Drama in the Classroom
In language teaching and learning process, drama technique deals with the teaching technique to help the students learn the TL for communication purposes
rather than theatrical purposes. The students are not trained to be professional actor or actresses to perform the play. In this way, the students are expected to be active and
creative to be express their ideas orally with all their feeling and emotion, and comprehend the intended meaning of what the other people speak.
Normally the students will work in pairs or groups during a drama activities. It does not mean the teacher has no role in the classroom. According to Holden
1981:13 the teacher must present the scenario or idea clearly and organise any
preliminary work, ensuring that each student understands what they have to do. Then the teacher must divide the class into groups. Holden added the teacher also has a role
in the discussion which normally follows each scene. This research focus only use role play as one of drama technique in the classroom.
2.3.1.1 Definition of Role Play
Role play is the act of imitating the character and behavior of a type of a person who is very different from yourself, either deliberatly, for example as a
training exercise, or without knowing it. The aim of using role play is for the students to make up short dialogues using appropriate language. The students practice role
play in a controlled way, using the language items that they have already learnt.
2.3.1.2 Types of Role Play
According to Byrne in Jannah : 2011, role play can be grouped into two forms, scripted and unscripted role play. In details, those types of role play activities
described as follows:
a. Scripted Role Play
This type involves interpreting either the text book dialogue or reading text in the form of speech. The main function of the text after all is to convey the meaning of
language items in a memorably way. In this type of role play the students use the language items they have already learn.
b. Unscripted Role Play
In contrast of scripted role play, the situations of unscripted role play do not depend on textbooks. It is known as a free role play or improvisation. The students
themselves have to decide what language to use and how the conversation should develop. In order to do this activity, good preparation from teacher and students is
really necessary. Student usually found the role playing enjoyable. But, students who lack-
confidence or have a lower proficiency levels may find them intimidating at first.
Good preparation leads success in role play. The important thing that must be done by the teacher is introduce the activity by describe the situation and making sure that
all of the students understand it.
2.3.2 The Advantages of Drama Technique in Teaching Learning Speaking
Using drama and drama activities has clear advantages for language learning. It encourages students to speak, it gives them the chance to communicate even with
limited language, using non-verbal communication such as: body movements and facial expression. There are also a number of other factors which makes drama a very
powerful tool in the language classroom. Desialova 2009 outlined some of the areas where drama is very useful to language learners and teachers, and they are listed
below : 1.
It causes learners in using the language for genuine communication and real life purposes.
2. It makes language learning an active, motivating experience.
3. It gives confidence and self-esteem to learners in using the language
spontaneously. 4.
It brings the real world into the classroom problem solving research, consulting dictionaries, real time and space, cross-curricular content.
5. It helps the students in acquiring the language through play, make-believe and
meaningful interaction. 6.
It makes the learning items memorable through direct experience and affect emotions with different learning styles.
7. When dramatizing, students make use of all the appropriate channels sight,
hearing, and physical bodies for the active involvement in the language learning.
8. It stimulates learners’ intellect and imagination.
9. It develops students’ ability to emphathize with others and become better
communicators.
10. It helps learners in acquiring the language by focusing on the message not the
form of their utterance.
Desialova:2009
Furthermore, there are many more advantages of using drama in teaching learning activities. First, using drama in teaching English brings the students feel the
real situation, it involves the ideas, emotions, and feelings. Drama technique is successful to make the students practice the language and motivates the students to
use the language appropriately with the right context and situation. Drama is also beneficial in teaching speaking since it provides improvement to the students’
participation in speaking class. Kao and O’Neill 1988 stated that confidence levels
increase when students have something to talk about and most importantly, when they know how to express their ideas.
Second, the main focus of using drama in the classroom is the use of the target language in communication. Desialova 2009 Through drama technique the students
may know the general content of the dialogue and keep in their mind the important utterances of every language. Moreover, drama uses physical gestures as the effective
means of communication, that can help the students who experience difficulties in using language. In other words, whenever the students can not express their ideas in
TL orally they may use mimic or gestures to express their thought. Whenever they can not reach the speaker’s idea they may guess it by the speker’s mimic or gestures.
Third, in creative drama, the students learn the language by doing. Wilburn, 1992 Drama activities can promote interesting ways of motivating language learners
and teachers. It means that the students learn to speak by speaking. It provides the students a great deal of oppurtunity to use English. Drama does not make the students
feel bored in the classroom, but helps them enjoy the teaching learning process. It sets emotion as a process. Their minds become free to express their language and flexible
to improve their experiences. Drama technique encourages the students to express their own feelings based on the situation given. The most important advantages of
drama technique is comfortable. Drama technique can create a relax atmosphere of
laguage learning where the students might express their ideas, without feeling afraid of making mistakes.
2.3.3 The Procedures of Using Drama Technique in Speaking Class
There are many procedures in using drama activities as a teaching technique in ELT. Drama can be used as a teaching techique after considering the situation,
time and the st udents’ need. Here the researcher only focused on the role play that
was used in this research. The following is an example of the procedure of role play adapted from
Holden:1981:17. The teacher explains that the students are going to work in pairs, the teacher will divide the group. The teacher provides cuecards containing a situation
that will be played by students. Make sure that the language item used has been taught to the students. Here is the example of cuecard:
Table 2.1 Example of Cuecard.
When the teacher is sure that all the students understand the exercise, the teacher distributes the cuecard and the students make up their dialogues. While they
are doing this, the teacher goes around, observing and helping if it is needed. When the students complete their dialogues, they should have the chance to practice it. Then
they perform one by one. When all the students have performed their dialogue, the next thing to do is giving feedback to the students. The class should discuss what they
have just done. The teacher may give some suggestions to the students, and the students have the right to accept and refuse it. The discussion is done to uncover any
errors and to provide a meaningful context for real conversation in English.
Situation : You ask for permission to your mother to go to your friend’s home.
You : ..................................................... Your mother : ..............giving permission
2.4 The Action Hypothesis
